Jacksonville is the slowest growing major metro area in Florida, according to a U.S. Metro Economies study prepared by IHS Global Insight.

Over the next seven years, other Florida cities will grow at a faster rate than Jacksonville’s estimated 3.3 percent: Orlando (4.1 percent), Tampa (3.4 percent) and Miami (3.4 percent.)

Jacksonville isn't lagging on a national scale: It and the three other major metros are all in the top 55 of the 363 cities on the list, with Florida's overall pace faster than the country's average.

Jacksonville drives 8.1 percent of the state's economic activity, and over the next seven years should grow its economy to be $69.4 billion.

To see how the city's gross metropolitan product stacks up against other cities, states and countries, click through the slides.

Year by year, Jacksonville’s economic activity is expected to grow 2.7 percent in 2014 and 2.5 percent in 2015, according to projections. Its unemployment rate is expected to be 5.4 percent for 2015 and 5.1 percent for 2016.

That growth will help push the city's employment rate back up: After peaking in the second quarter of 2007, the city lost 57,300 jobs, a 9.1 percent decline.

The report estimates a return to peak employment in Jacksonville in the first quarter of 2015.

Orlando is expected to make up its decline by the first quarter of 2014 but Tampa not until the end of 2015.

Nearby areas aren’t expected to bounce back as fast, with Daytona bouncing back in the second quarter of 2018 and Brunswick, Georgia, not return to peak until 2020 or later.